We hear it all the time… “Hydrate! Hydrate! Hydrate!” So do you?
Staying on top of this hydration business makes sense, especially in the summertime. Sirens blaring, the paramedics have arrived at our ukulele jams or shows to rescue a player who has gone pale and slumped over in a heap. Thankfully this has only happened a few times and everyone was okay.
But one cool spring morning, an older fellow keeled over in my ukulele class. About ten of us were seated in a small second-floor classroom and, as you might expect, just strumming our ukes. The paramedics slogged up (and down) the narrow stairs with gurney and equipment in tow. Thankfully our friend recovered…after a couple days in the hospital. Diagnosis: Dehydration.
Flash forward to this month, March. It’s Thursday, the setting is Zoom Central at my desk in the living room. According to the calendar, it’s still winter in Los Angeles. But whoa it’s hot! I’m getting ding-ding heat alerts on my phone all day. My husband is out of town which means I’m a little discombobulated…well more than usual. But this afternoon I am blissfully getting ready for my class and not really paying attention to my body. All the windows are open, the fans are blowing. The temperature inside is 81 degrees but “I’m not feeling it,” says the lobster in the pot of tepid water as the burner heats up. Why oh why don’t I turn on the AC?
As the Zoom class begins my hands are shaking. Like what? Of course I’m sipping water. But only when I remember, which isn’t a lot because I just don’t get thirsty. Now it’s feeling like a word scramble in my brain and my office chair is wobbling. I muscle through the hour because that’s what I do and it doesn’t hit me until we are all saying good-bye that I am dehydrated. That my jiggly chair is okay. I am not.
It takes a few hours of water (and Gatorade) guzzling, peeing a lot, laying very still with a pillow over my head before I feel “normal” again. Well who knows what “normal” is, but it is NOT being dehydrated.
That evening I text my friends and they have plenty to say:
“Wow! And it happens so fast and one is slow in figuring it out. Yesterday was my day for confronting dehydration. I did too much walking and not enough hydrating, got the shakes and was a bit disoriented and fatigued. Someone I know fainted today and was treated by the paramedics. Heat related stuff is going around.”
Another friend tells me she has been admitted to the hospital twice for dehydration and now sips from her water bottle all day. At our ukulele jams she takes a swallow after each song. That’s 19 songs and a whole lot of chug-a-lugging. Who does that? I don’t do that. And my friend? SHE is the one calling 911 for someone else.
The next day I’m feeling good and sliding into my morning routine, EXCEPT this time the FIRST thing I do is DRINK a cup of water. And another. And another. You see, my usual MO is to roll out of bed, dive right into my creative thing and lose track of time or what my body needs. But not today! Not anymore.
Then I head off to the uke class I teach at a local retirement community. Of course I tell the residents all about yesterday’s drama because these people are Zen masters and I want to hear what they have to say. Each one nods in agreement and recounts their own dehydration-tale-of-woe. The major consensus is that you just don’t know it’s happening and are darn lucky if you figure it out before the paramedics are loading you into an ambulance.
Well let’s drink to that!
My friends, I send a weekly email newsletter to The CC Strummers which is all about the ukulele, zoom classes and our beloved community.
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With much gratitude for your ongoing presence…
Cali
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